Unleash the Beast
by The Half-Blood Guardian
Summary: 'Yes, that's it,' the spirit thought as Ushio drew closer. 'Come to me. Come back to the place where you so violently trespassed on the soul of my Light. Come, and let me return the favor.' (Continuation of 'Submersion', Chapter 4: Reckoning, from the Puzzle spirit's perspective. HARD T.)


**As stated in the preview, this is a continuation of _Chapter 4: Reckoning_, from my story _Submersion_, and will make a lot more sense if you read that first. Hope you enjoy!**

**Rating: _HARD_ T**

**Genre: Horror**

**Warnings: blood, gore, and mental instability**

**Disclaimer: anything/anyone you recognize belongs to someone else.**

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**Unleash the Beast**

**By: The Half-Blood Guardian**

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The spirit's inner sense gripped his mind and hauled him out of his useless rage, forcefully dragging his attention back to the Puzzle just as the last piece clicked into place. A golden glow appeared from somewhere behind him, much brighter than anything else that had ever entered his dull, stone prison. He spun around, and was astonished to see four lines of light forming on the wall in the shape of a rectangle. The section of wall inside the rectangle seemed to ripple and the uneven surface became smooth. His eyes widened in disbelief when, impossibly, the now smooth slab of stone swung inward. It was another door!

Then came another surprise; his Shadows, which he'd been all but cut off from the longer he was able to watch and listen to his little one's life without their help, were abruptly _there_, shrieking and thrashing with almost as much anger as the spirit felt. There was an insistent, disorienting tug, like something was stretching him and pulling him away from his incorporeal body. He fought the pull for only a moment before he suddenly felt as though he was being stuffed into something else. Something heavy, _solid._

He knew before he opened his eyes _(when had he closed them?)_ that something was off. Besides the strange and dizzying sensation he had felt just before, there was another thing that alerted him to the fact that there was something wrong: his whole body was in pain. The spirit tried, unsuccessfully, to shake off the annoying cotton balls that seemed insistent on clinging to his mind and clouding his thoughts. After a short struggle, he gave up and opened his eyes. He was blinded momentarily by the light that attacked his sensitive retinas, and he had to wait a few moments for them to adjust. When they did, two more reasons for alarm made themselves known to him.

The first reason was the realization that his eyes even _needed_ to adjust, when his incorporeal form should have made it unnecessary. The second reason was his surroundings. He was still where he had been before all of the strange tugging and stretching and shoving, but rather than viewing it all through his mind's eye or the eyes of his Shadows like he did for the rest of the physical world, he was now staring at everything through actual eyes. It was a feeling he had never experienced before, and the weight of his form, the sharp physical discomfort, told him that the body he was inhabiting was _real_, a real, tangible object.

He blinked, glancing over at the hand that was stretched out towards the Puzzle, and caught sight of both the sleeve of a blue Domino High School uniform and wild blond bangs as well. _Yuugi's_ school jacket. _Yuugi's_ hair. _Yuugi's_ soft, petite hand. But wouldn't that mean he was… in Yuugi's body? How had that happened? What was going on?

He tried pulling up his memories of what had been happening before all of this. The fog over his mind did its best to obscure the memories, and for a little while it succeeded in keeping them from him, but finally he was able to recall what he was searching for and find it. When he did, his reaction was immediate and harsh.

He narrowed his eyes furiously as his lips pulled back, exposing straight white teeth that looked just a little bit too sharp. A rumbling growl started deep in his chest and left his throat in a snarl.

_How __**dare**__ that worthless scum hurt my precious little Light!_

Pain became buried beneath the rage he felt towards Ushio. He barely noticed the energy flaring in his irises until it had grown bright enough to light up every last inch of his dark surroundings in a golden glow, which continued to grow even brighter with his anger until his own eyes were practically blinding themselves. The flickering security light reacted to the spike of energy by flaring up as well, then popped and shattered when the spike became too much for it to handle.

He was finally snapped out of his spiral of rage by the sharp noise, and the energy soon settled back down from white to gold. It had now gathered on the center of his forehead in the shape of a third eye, which thrummed softly in the back of his mind.

His night vision should have been ruined; his eyes should have been completely useless in the dark after being exposed to the bright light. But the appearance of the third eye brought with it an unnamed sixth sense, providing him with a new level of clarity that he had never before possessed. Whatever this sixth sense was, it quickly brushed away most of the fog from his mind, helped to numb the pain in his borrowed body, and granted him a clear view of everything around him. It also left him with an urge that was even more irresistible than before, to seek out the wrongdoer, to hunt him down and _punish_ him.

The spirit pulled Yuugi's body up from the sprawled heap it had been in until it was standing. He turned the body in the direction that Ushio had gone, and all three eyes glared out into the night. The entity took a step forward before suddenly halting. His eyes flicked back to the ground. Yuugi's two classmates were still laying there a few paces in front of him, out cold.

The entity in Yuugi's body regarded them distractedly for a second, his golden eye piercing the pitiful defenses around their unconscious minds with ease and swiftly examining some of their most recent thoughts. Satisfied with what he'd found, he withdrew from their minds and carefully re-sealed the holes he had made to breach their mental shields. He summoned a few of his Shadows and ordered them to transport the teenagers to somewhere they wouldn't be disturbed before they woke, firmly commanding them not to damage the two in any way. The Shadows complied, for once perfectly happy to help out mostly unfamiliar humans. This was a special case, after all; these humans had just tried to defend their master's Light.

The spirit sensed their cooperation. With all else taken care of, he was free to go after his target, and did so without hesitation.

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There he was. Ushio. That sadistic monster who passed himself off as a human being. He was strutting slowly and casually away from the alley, a small smirk on his face, his hands in his pockets and not a care in the world. The spirit didn't even need to look into the mortal's mind; his actions alone showed that he felt not one inkling of guilt, nor the slightest fear of retribution.

A human being, huh? Is that what Ushio was? White teeth flashed in the dark and another quiet snarl was unleashed. Well, the spirit had never claimed to be a human, let alone a decent one. So why should he behave as a decent human ought to?

Although… perhaps a small amount of acting for a short time would be beneficial for when he enacted punishment. He tethered his Shadows momentarily and extinguished the light from the golden eye on his forehead. Then he covered his smoldering rage with an expression he hoped was somewhat similar to humility, dimming the fire in his eyes.

Doing his best to imitate the voice of his Light, he called out to his unwitting prey.

"Ushio-san?"

* * *

A bright light coming from within the alley he'd left caused Ushio to pause and glance back, just in time to hear a pop and see the light fade. He mentally shrugged. It was just the security light acting up.

He resumed his stride, noting with vague interest that the transition between sunset and the deep darkness that had settled over the street seemed to pass in an abnormally short amount of time. He was interrupted seconds later by a quiet, unexpected voice coming from the same alley he'd just left.

"Ushio-san?" The voice called. This time Ushio stopped in his tracks before turning around to face the speaker, surprised at hearing anyone address him, especially since it was the shrimp he'd just barely beaten to a pulp.

"I actually did bring the money," the quiet voice continued. "I should have given it to you. I'm sorry."

There was something off about that voice. It took him a moment to place what it was, and when he figured it out he was a bit confused. The voice lacked fear. He began walking back towards the other, squinting, and sure enough, though the boy was covered in bruises and cuts and sagged slightly against the wall, his posture lacked fear as well. As did his eyes.

There was something different about the eyes, too, other than the lack of fear, but it was too dark to really see what it was. Ushio shook his head. Why was he even thinking about any of this? So the kid didn't look afraid and his eyes looked weird. He'd probably hit his head a bit too hard and gotten a concussion, and that was why he looked that way. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter to him.

What _did_ matter to him was what the shrimp had said. So, he'd had the money all that time and had still held onto it? If Ushio had been less focused on the promise of payment, he might have felt impressed at how persistent the guy was. The tiny smirk on his face widened. None of that mattered now. All he cared about was that he was going to get his cash tonight after all.

The spirit watched his approach, the fury boiling within him getting harder and harder to suppress the closer the other got. He grasped his anger tighter as it wriggled and writhed and struggled to get free so that it could obliterate the being responsible for hurting the spirit's Light. His Shadows reacted to that fury with their own, and he yanked them back into line. His mask of semi-calm and definitely _not_ angry emotions nearly slipped.

_Yes, that's it,_ he thought as Ushio drew even closer. _Come to me. Come back to the place where you so violently trespassed on the soul of my Light and those who sought to protect him. Come, and let me return the favor._

The spirit almost quivered with anticipation and rage, the only thing keeping him from prematurely releasing his attack being his indulgence in allowing his mind to conjure every bloody, gory detail of what he intended to happen and more. Inside his head, he watched and directed his faithful Shadows while gleefully partaking in the same glorious savagery. Shrieks of agonized insanity and splashes of magnificent, crimson retribution sang and danced within the spirit's head.

He wanted to shred Ushio's mind to ribbons while he and his Shadows ripped and tore at the despicable mortal's body. Wanted to reach forward and thrust his hand through Ushio's flesh and snap every bone that stood between him and the chunk of meat nestled inside that rib cage, pumping life through that hulking body. Wanted to take hold of that slippery, still-beating heart and _squeeze_.

He could barely keep himself from licking his lips as he watched Ushio draw closer and closer, moving towards the spirit without realizing that he was really only a very confused and foolish fruit fly trying to stalk a tarantula. The spirit sent out invisible tendrils of power, weaving them through his surroundings and wrapping them around the natural ambient shadows. Keeping up the pretense as he spun his dark web, he backed away from his prey and farther into the alley.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Ushio demanded, scowling and thoughtlessly following him deeper into the shadowed area. Once they were fifteen feet in, Ushio caught up to him and reached out to grab him by the arm.

The spirit allowed his mask to finally shatter in a whirlwind of chaotic power and rage. He wrenched the ambient shadows towards him, forming a cocoon of utter blackness around the area as the eye of golden energy he'd been struggling to suppress suddenly burst to life again on his forehead. He released his Shadows from where he had forced them to stay still and hidden. Their bodies reformed with burning eyes and gaping maws and needle sharp teeth, and they leapt off the walls and out of the corners, emitting snarls and screeches of anger.

Ushio had barely had time to take one step back before they were upon him, and the terrified, ear-splitting shrieks that the spirit had fantasized about were at last made reality. Bright scarlet flames danced wildly in crimson eyes as he both watched and directed his Shadows in their brutal attack, shivering in delight at the scene.

He may have been unwilling to soil his Light's body by physically joining in, but his eyes could still revel in the twisting and writhing of his prey. His ears could still be pleasantly assaulted as that previously arrogant voice rose to an impossibly high pitch in tandem with the sound of snapping and crunching. He could still marvel at the jagged edges of beautiful, red-streaked white that protruded out through punctured flesh, and at the way screams were transformed into smothered gurgles as inky creatures slithered into airways, traveling deeper and deeper while others crammed their way in.

Finally, the number of Shadows surpassed the ability of the mortal's body to contain. The feeling of satisfaction that flooded the spirit was so potent he barely even noticed the droplets of hot red liquid that spattered the left side of his face, and forgot all about the plans he'd had for the other's soul. In that moment, there existed nothing save for himself, his triumphantly shrieking Shadows, and their glorious retribution.


End file.
